How to choose your business partners in 2015

02.02.2015 22:59

If you are like most people, you often follow your instincts to determine the people you like to work and socialize with. In this new year, you should also start to use your knowledge of etiquette to help you form and maintain strong business relationships.

Being a successful entrepreneur and small business owner requires a lot of communication, observation and relationship building. Business relationships are just like personal relationships; you usually know from the very beginning whether they’ll work out. It’s another thing entirely if you choose to ignore the red flags for whatever reason, but if you follow these simple, basic etiquette practices that you can apply right away, you’ll enjoy a greater sense of satisfaction ad success, both in your business and personal relationships:

Emails – a response to an email shouldn’t take more than 48 hours. If someone takes a few days to respond, he or she should offer you a really good explanation. Of course, sometimes correspondence can get lost, so if you don’t receive a response to your first e-mail, send a second one.

If the response is pretty vague, and you don’t sense any energy or enthusiasm, it’s probably not a good idea to collaborate with them.

Phone calls – when you call and leave a message, you have a right to expect the person to return your call. If people take longer than usual to return your calls, they’re probably not well-organized, and their business practices are likely missing a sense of balance. I wouldn’t work with a person who can’t return my calls, or takes a week to get back to me.Being late for a meeting – being late for a meeting is a very serious indication that there is a missing organizational element. Don’t get me wrong, things happen to all of us—we forget our keys, get into an accident, the babysitter doesn’t show up on time—but if you hear people say they’ve been trying to work on the issue of being late for a long time, but they’re still always late, that’s a sign that they won’t be a good fit for your business success. No matter how insignificant you may feel, or how important they may be in everybody else’s eyes, this lack of simple courtesy is a sure sign that you won’t be able to develop a mutually beneficial relationship.Appearance—it may seem like common sense, but people who are unkempt, sloppy, and unclean won’t be your best bet either. If they don’t have the desire to take care of themselves, it means they’ll probably be sloppy in their business relationships as well. The way we do anything is the way we do everything.Respectful demeanor—people who try to intimidate you, who are dishonest, or who react with jealousy and insecurity because they sense your drive and commitment to success won’t be good business partners. We live and build our dreams in the 21st century, on a very different platform where everything is based on collaboration. Those ancient cutthroat, competitive ways are, thankfully, long gone. If people don’t give you the respect you deserve, move on to others who will.

I want to wish you an incredible, fruitful and healthy 2015. Let’s step up!